Attachment for folding machine



Jan. 24, 1961 D. DEMAGNY ATTACHMENT FOR FOLDING MACHINE Filed Oct. 8, 1958 United States Patent ATTACHMENT FOR FOLDING MACHINE Daniel Demagny, 62 Rue Tiquetonne, Paris, France Filed Oct. 8, 1958, Ser. No. 766,139

Claims priority, application France Nov. 30, 1957 7 Claims. (Cl. 270-80) This invention relates to folding machines, and is particularly directed to an improved device or attachment adapted to be associated with a folding machine, whereby the depth or length of the folds formed in a piece of fabric being folded on the machine can be selectively modified during operation of the machine.

In conventional machines for forming folds in textile fabrics and similar flexible sheet materials, it is not possible to modify the depth or length of the folds formed, during operation of the machine. In order to change from one to another fold dimension, the machine has to be stopped and a fresh manual adjustment has to be made.

The invention provides a device adaptable as an attachment to an existent folding machine to permit such adjustment to be effected during operation; the invention further relates to improved machines incorporating such novel adjusting device originally included therein.

The device or attachment is designed for use in connecting with folding machines of the conventional type including combs, a comb-carrier slideblock, a drive link therefor, a swivel for said link and a lever carrying said swivel, and is essentially characterized in that it comprises means for modifying the position of said swivelcarrier lever without requiring the operation of the machine to be arrested in order to effect such adjustment.

Further features and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the ensuing description, made with reference to the accompanying drawings given by way of example, but not of limitation, to provide a clear understanding of the manner in which the invention may be reduced to practice.

Fig. 1 is a diagrammatic view showing the main components of the device;

fig. 2 is a showing of the intermittent coupling means; an

Fig. 3 illustrates the barrel drive arrangement.

The device of the invention is adapted for attachment to a conventional folding machine or may be originally incorporated in a novel folding machine, as already pointed out.

In Fig. l, the essential components of a conventional machine are shown in dot-dash lines as including a main drive shaft 1. cylinders 2 and 3 for the formation of the folds, combs 4 and 5, comb-carriers 6 and 7, a combcarrier slideblock 8 actuated by the extremity 9a of a link 9. the other end 9b of which carries a roller 10 riding a circular camway 11 formed in a cam disc driven in eccentrical rotation by the shaft 1.

It should be recalled that in such known folding arrangement. the link is pivoted at a point 90 between its ends 9a and 9b upon a ball swivel 11a carried by an adjusting lever 12. The lever 12 is pivoted to the machine frame at one, 12a, of its ends and is secured to said frame at its other end 12b in a position that can be modified in accordance with the depth of the folds to be produced. The position of the end 12b, heretofore, could not be modified during operation of the machine;

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because of this, and since the position of the pivot could not be adjusted, and consequently the depth of the folds was unchangeable so long as the machine was not arrested to modify the position of the lever end 12b.

The invention substitutes for this fixed mounting arrangement adjustable means,whereby the position of lever 12, and consequently that of the pivot 9c, can be varied in operation, thereby making it possible to modify at any time the depth of the folds and, in particular, to control such depth automatically in accordance with some predetermined cyclic law.

For this purpose, secured on the shaft 1 is a gear 13 which meshes with a gear 14 secured on a lay shaft 15 and meshing in turn with a gear 16 rotatably mounted on a secondary shaft 17; advantageously gear ratio is so selected that the shaft 17 rotates with a ratio of three revolutions per revolution of the shaft 1. The gear 16 has secured to it a dog or ratchet member 18 (see Fig. 2), and an eccenter 19 (Fig. 3), the functions of which will be described presently.

A link 20 has one of its ends secured to the lever 12 and its other end secured to a crank 21. Both points of attachment of the link 20 are separately adjustable in accordance with the depth of the folds to be produced, by means of bolts 22 and 23, which can be displaced respectively in slots 20a and 21a. The crank 21 is secured on the secondary shaft 17, so that rotation of this shaft will result in displacing the pivot bolt 23 from a position x to a position y or vice-versa, thereby causing displacement of the link 20 and, consequent modification of the position of lever 12; this in turn results in a change of the depth of folding from one value to another value. In order to effect such alteration automatically at predetermined times in the operating cycle of the machine, it is simply necessary that the secondary shaft 17 should be caused to effect a half-turn at such predetermined times.

The secondary shaft 17 has secured on it a disc 24 upon which a pawl 25 is pivoted on a pivot pin 26. The pawl is so arranged as to be engageable with notches 18a or 18b of the dog 18 under the action of a spring 27. The pawl is further provided with a projecting heel portion 27a.

Since the dog 18 is continually driven in rotation by the 1 gear 16, it will drive the disc 24 forward each time the pawl 25 engages one of the teeth 18a or 18b. The disc 24 will not turn by more than one half revolution each time, since the heel 25a of the pawl is engaged by one of the fingers 28a or 28b of the fork 23, which is pivoted to reciprocate about a rocking shaft 29 to which it is secured. The finger 28a actuates the heel 35a by means of the hooked shape imparted to said finger, while the finger 28b exerts a similar action by acting as a backing abutment. The position of the fingers 28a and 28b corresponds to the positions x and y of the link 20 previously mentioned, so that the position of said link is altered thereby adjusting the depth of the fold, every time the shaft 17 is driven through a semi-revolution by the coupling 18424.

If it be desired to control the frequency of the adjustment in accordance with a predetermined law, a barrel or pinwheel 30 is provided in selected holes of which crosspins such as 31 are inserted. The pinwheel is keyed on a shaft 32. A lever 33 is secured to the shaft 29, so that rocking reciprocation of the lever will cause a corresponding rocking reciprocation of the fork 28. The end 33a of this lever is formed with camming inclines, which engage with the crosspins 31 on rotation of the pinwheel 30.

It will be readily understood that every time a crosspin 31 moves by, the lever 33 is raised and causes an angular displacement of the fork and hence the desired modification in the depth of folding. It is simply necessary to cause rotation of the pinwheel 30, in order to obtain the automatic change-over in folding depth. Such rotation may, for example, be produced by the following means:

Secured on the shaft 32 is a ratchet wheel 34. The previously mentioned eccenter 19 is enclosed in an aperture 35a of a lever 35, the other end 351? of which is provided with a roller 36, which rides the contour of a cam 37 keyed on the main shaft 1, while the side of the lever is formed with a nose 350, the tip of which is engageable with the teeth of ratchet 34.

At every turn of eccenter 19, that is, of gear 16, the lever 35 is displaced, if the position of the cam 38 allows such displacement. The nose 35a engages a tooth of ratchet 34, and rotates the pinwheel 30 by one increment. If a crosspin 31 has been inserted in the pinwheel atthe new incremental position, the lever 33rand the fork 28 are raised, thus positioning the finger 25b. into abutting engagement with the stop 25a. If, however, the pinwheel is stepped from a position containing a crosspin to a position containing none, then the lever and fork drop back and it is the other finger 28a which will engage the stop 25a.

In the case of the embodiment just described, in which the eccenter 19 performs three revolutions PCI IQVOILIt lOH of the shaft 1, the nose 35!: only engages a ratchet tooth at every third reciprocation of the lever 35.

It should be noted that the cam 11 is concentric with the shaft 1 over part of its contour, say about 60, and hence the link 9 is caused to remain stationary during one sixth of the operating cycle. It is for this reason that a speed ratio of 3/1 was selected relatively to the main shaft, so as to use one half turn of the gear to produce the change in depth of the fold during the stationary period of link 9.

It will be understood that modifications may be made in the constructional form described without departing from the scope of the invention.

What I claim is:

1. In a folding machine having a drive shaft, reciprocable folding comb means and means operated by said shaft for reciprocating said comb means to form folds in work material and a lever in operative association with said comb means and adjustable in angular position for altering the length of reciprocation of said comb means while the machine is in operation and thereby modifying the fold depth, the improvement comprising: a link having one end attached to said lever and its other end displaceable between different positions, a member shiftable between two positions in each of which said member is operative to cause said other end of the link to be displaced from one to the other of its said positions at selectable times in the operation of said machine, a pinwheel having selectively insertable and removable pins, cam means secured to said member and engageable with pins of the pinwheel to shift said member between its positions on engagement with a pin, and means operated from said drive shaft for imparting step by step rotation to said pinwheel.

2. The combination claimed in claim 1, wherein the means for imparting step by step rotation to the pinwheel comprise a ratchet wheel coaxially secured to the pinwheel, and a pawl reciprocated for periodically engaging said ratchet for imparting a step of rotation to it.

3. The combination claimed in claim 2, wherein said pawl projects from a lever having one end freely rotatable on eccentric supported on an auxiliary shaft, and having its other end riding a cam secured on said drive shaft.

4. In a folding machine having reciprocable folding comb means to form folds in work material, main drive shaft means including a circular cam track carried thereby in eccentric relationship therewith, first lever means pivotally mounted at one end to the machine frame, sec ond lever means pivotally mounted to said first lever means between the ends thereof, said second lever means connected at one end to said folding comb means with the other end thereof positioned in same cam track, said second lever means pivotally connected with said first lever means, and adjustable means modifying the length of travel of said comb means while the folding machine is in operation, said adjustable means comprising second drive shaft means in rotational driving relationship with said main shaft means for rotation thereof, a third lever means connected at one end in adjustable relation: ship with said first lever means and at its opopsite end to said drive means in adjustable relationship therewith, the rotation of said second drive means capable of resulting in an actuation of the third link means to vary the position of the first link means thereby changing the length of fold of the work material, and means to control said second drive means for cyclically operating said third lever means.

5. The mechanism of claim 4 wherein intermittent driven means are provided connecting said main drive shaft means to said second drive shaft means for imparting predetermined angular displacement to said second drive shaft means and said control means at select able times in the operation of said machine to alter the fold depth of the work material.

6 The mechanism in accordance with claim '5 wherein the intermittent drive means comprises a gear freely rotatable on said second drive shaft means and gearing means for continuously rotating said gear from said main drive shaft means, driving dog means coaxially secured to said gear and having angularly spaced peripheral catches therein, a flange carried by said second drive shaft means and a pawl pivoted to said flange and en.- gageable with said catches, and means for actuating said pawl at selectable times in the operation of the folding machine to bring same into engagement with a catch thereby imparting predetermined angular displacement to said second drive shaft means.

7. The mechanism in accordance with claim 6 wherein said pawl actuating means comprises a two pronged forklike member having means on its prongs toengage with said pawl for moving it out of engagement with. a catch and means for alternately locking said fork to a selected Abell et al. May 25, 1954 Petre Jan. 28, 1958 

